Originally Posted by
pr00ne
"General Sir Richard Barrons apparently is favourably disposed toward this radical shift."
"The current service chiefs are broadly said to be driving things."
"..who will make the final decision, they all work in the Treasury..."
Finningley Boy,
Make your mind up!
You can't have it all ways...
pr00ne,
I'm putting together all the different snippets being reported, it does all sound a bit contradictory, I'll accept the service chiefs better judgement for sure, but I'm stunned, and not for reasons of tradition, that Sir Nick Carter and Sir Mark Carlton-Smith, were genuinely driving a policy of putting all armoured vehicles into 'deep storage' only to be relied upon in an emergency???? That sounds more like an ill-informed strand of thinking if ever there was. Who would, in an emergency, be available, and at least broadly competent, to maintain and operate the Challengers and Warriors if an emergency occurs two, three, four years into the future?
I therefore, prefer to believe the comments, albeit of retire senior officers, who have reservations about such a drastic and near unilateral conclusion, should it be so of course. Near unilateral because I understand that the Netherlands is the only other NATO country to go down a similar route. I wonder if simply being progressive as well as more cuts to defence funding are more the drivers behind this eureka moment.
Incidentally, I suspect you're not a great Cumming fan. Given that he's quite possibly behind some of this, how would you rate him now? I personally don't understand how or why he carries the amount of authority he appears to do. An unelected advisor surely shouldn't be anywhere near a review of this nature. I certainly don't think it is in his field or something he thinks of in any efficacious sense.
FB